Basically, I was a kid growing up with a single mother in Brooklyn.

I do a lot of research on what people have done in the past.

I remember finding a Houdini book at the library and seeing an image of him chained on the side of a building. He looked so intense and scary, and I couldn't get that image out of my head. That started building up my love of magic.

I've always liked artists like Chris Burden, who would take performances, put them in galleries, and then do things that were on the edge.

Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.

Many countries, even socialist Sweden and former communist Russia, have done away with their death taxes. They found the confiscation of wealth at death to be counterproductive.

Genetically, I'm like my mum, and she looked great right up until her death in 1989.

I admit that death is not just about you, it's also about the people who love you.